Maitland's Millions
by ucsbdad
Summary: Can Rick and Kate figure out the clues that will lead them to a long dead dirty cop's loot? COMPLETE!
1. Chapter 1

Maitland's Millions

By

UCSBdad

Disclaimer: Would it surprise you to know I don't own Castle? Rating: K Time: After the end of season eight. Just a three shot.

It began innocently enough, as these things often do.

Castle ran upstairs to the mezzanine of the book store where his wife and his agent were enjoying coffee.

"Okay, ladies, I'm all done. How did you like it, Kate?"

"Going to your first book signing as your wife was…educational."

Paula laughed. "I had to stop her from going down there with her gun in her hand when that blonde leaned _way_ over the table."

"Don't those women know by now that we're married and that the only chest you will ever sign again is mine?"

Castle blushed. "Sorry. Years of being your friendly local playboy author have stuck with me."

"Maybe I should sit next to you next time. I could wear a tee shirt that says Richard Castle is mine, so back off."

One of the store clerks came over to talk to Paula. "Ms. Haas? What do we do with the box?"

"Oh, just toss it, dear."

"Wait." Kate interrupted. "What box?"

The girl shuffled a cardboard box in her hands back and forth. Paula came to her rescue.

"Oh, people give Rick a lot of things at these signings. He's had awful manuscripts given to him, people asking for money, all sorts of things. Rick puts them in a box under the table."

"Why do you keep them in box if you're just going to throw them away?"

"To prevent hard feeling by my fans. How would you feel if your favorite, ruggedly handsome writer took your fan letter and just tossed it in the trash? You wouldn't be a Richard Castle fan much longer, would you?"

"You can just toss that, sweetie." Paula said a little too quickly.

"No. Bring it to me."

The clerk looked back and forth between Paula and Kate, then handed the box to Kate and quickly made her escape.

Kate pulled out a business card. "Teresa Clemons, an accountant. Does she think you need an…" Then Kate saw the writing on the back of the card. "No, she thinks you need to be tied up, have chocolate sauce dripped all over you…" Kate shot to her feet, looking to see if the woman was around. "She wrote her hotel name and room number. I should go over there and…"

"Kate, please, honey. You'd just get everyone embarrassed…"

"This one sent a nude photograph. So did this one and…Oh my GOD! She must be over eighty."

While Kate went through the contents of the box, getting angrier by the second, Castle tried to distract her. "Kate, I was talking to Ryan and Esposito this morning and they were looking at a website called Maitland's Millions. It seemed to be about some cop, but they got suspiciously busy when I asked them what it was about. Can you…"

"You get nude photos from men, too?" Kate growled, waving another photo at him.

It took a half an hour for Kate to go through the box, take the contents to the book store manager's shredder, then bag the shredded paper to be burned in the loft's fireplace.

Once the burning was safely done, Rick poured her some wine and let her settle down. He sat beside her on the sofa and when he thought it was safe, he asked, "Are you okay now?"

She surprised by throwing her arms around his neck and kissing him passionately. "Thank you so very much." She whispered when she broke the kiss. "Thank you."

"For showing you the throw away box?" Castle wasn't sure why she was thanking him.

She shook her head. "For all that you've done for me. I was a mess after my mom died. Terrified about being intimate with anyone for fear they'd leave. In denial about just how bad off I was. I was a complete bitch to you too many times to count. Any sensible man would have run from Kate Beckett as fast as he could, but here we are. We're married and I never thought I'd ever be this happy. Every time I see how easy it would have been for you to find someone else, I know how lucky I am." She kissed him again.

"No one has ever called me sensible to begin with and if you think I'd be happy with a three hundred pound, eighty year-old grandmother…"

She slapped his chest. "You could have gone with that accountant. She's probably a very stable woman."

"The accountant _was_ the eighty year-old grandmother."

"Well, Mr. Castle, I think I need to show you just how happy I am you stayed with me."

Later, as they were ready to fall asleep, Kate asked, "Did you ask about Maitland's millions tonight?"

"Just something I picked up at the station."

"Um. Take me to lunch tomorrow and I tell you all about it."

Castle arrived the next day precisely at noon and took Kate to Remy's. Once they had ordered, he asked her about Maitland's millions.

"Charles Maitland was a captain in the New Jersey State Police. In the early nineties he was named the head of their narcotics unit. He was responsible for coordinating with all of the police forces in New Jersey and coordinating with other state's narcotics people, mainly New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Connecticut. He also coordinated with the feds, mostly the DEA."

"I'm assuming that he didn't get his millions by winning the lottery?" Castle asked.

"He was dirty. He corrupted three or four other cops, all in positions to do the most damage and he was in a great position to direct any attention to drug busts gone wrong to someone other than him. He really did make millions. No one really knows how many millions, but he was at it for years."

"What happened?"

"He was smart. He knew that most people get caught with their hand in the cookie jar because they suddenly start throwing money around they shouldn't have. Expensive cars, boats, new homes, vacations, things like that. He kept all the money himself except for a very small amount he'd dole out to the other dirty cops. Once they had enough, the plan was for them all to head for some country that had no extradition treaty with the US and live the good life."

"So, if he was so smart, how'd he get caught?"

"One of the other dirty cops' daughter developed leukemia and needed a lot of expensive care. More than New Jersey would pay for. He asked for a lot of money. Maitland turned him down. So, he ratted out Maitland."

"Maitland never told them where the money was?"

"Maitland saw the cops pull up in front of his house and figured it was all over. He went to his office and shot himself. The wife was just answering the door when they heard the shot. He killed himself in the summer of 1999. They were still talking about it when I went to the Academy."

"No clue at all where the money went? No secret bank account? No hidden room in the house? No odd trips out of the country to countries that have very strict bank secrecy laws?"

"The only clue Maitland left was something he said to his wife on his way to his office: "If they ask about money, tell them to ask William Claude Dunkenfield." We checked out everyone named William Claude Dunkenfield and came up empty."

Castle smiled at his wife. "Ah, but did you know that…"

"William Claude Dunkenfield is the real name of W.C. Fields, a comedian from the twenties to the forties?" Kate smiled back. "Yes. And we found out that Fields distrusted banks. He'd get paid for a movie and go to a bank and put his money in a safety deposit box, using a phony name. "

Castle thought about that. "Fields was famous for the bizarre names he'd make up for the characters he'd play. Elmer Prettywillie, Augustus Winterbottom, Ambrose Wolffinger, T. Frothington Bellows, Larson E. Whipsnade, Cuthbert J. Willie, Egbert Souse, pronouncd Sow-zay, Mahatma Kane Jeeves, and Otis Criblecolis, to name a few. Could you check the banks for names like that?"

Kate shook her head. "Not without a search warrant, and no judge is going to issue one for every bank on the east coast to look for god knows how many odd names."

"Do you suppose I could have a look at the files?" Castle did his best to look appealing.

"No, and they're in New Jersey, so out of my jurisdiction anyway. But, the Ledger wrote a series of articles about the case back in the day. That should give you a good start. You could probably find the old stories on line or at the library."

Once they had finished and Rick had taken Kate back to the precinct, he rushed back to the loft and got online. He was still reading when Kate got home.

"You're still reading the Ledger, Babe?' She asked, after kissing him.

"No, the State of New Jersey investigated the whole matter. And, New Jersey will pay a finders' fee of ten percent of whatever's recovered. "He winked at Kate, "It'll make a nice donation to the Johanna Beckett Scholarship Fund."

Kate blew him a kiss.

"The four other dirty cops were all convicted and sentenced to a long time in prison. Three are still in prison and the other one got shanked by someone who didn't like dirty cops. Oh, the daughter of the cop who ratted out Maitland died of leukemia. I did find one thing. There was another cop who was involved, Marty Sinclair. He was a rookie and all he was guilty of was signing some things without reading them. Not enough to put him in jail, but enough to fire him. I'm going to try to track him down. Maitland's widow is still around. She should be easy to find, too."

"How about we track down some dinner, Babe?"

"Excellent idea, my dear Captain Beckett."

Carolyn Maitland was easy track down. She lived with her daughter in northern New Jersey. She had been younger than Maitland had been when they married and still had a slender figure and coal black hair even though she was in her early fifties. They sat in the living room of the daughter's house.

"I don't see how I can be any help to you, Mr. Castle. If I knew anything about where the money went, I wouldn't be here. I'd be in some country with no extradition treaty with the US."

Castle was surprised. "You'd break the law?"

She smiled and nodded. "In a heartbeat. Because my asshole husband was a crook, I never saw a penny of the pension he was supposed to get. In addition, New Jersey took almost everything away. They said it was all the proceeds of a criminal conspiracy. I lost our house, our savings, the cars, everything in our house. I had to hire a lawyer to keep those things that I got before I married Chuck. And the lawyer got half of that. I had to go to work as a waitress to support my daughter and son. Luckily, I got a job as a teacher's aide and worked my way up to being the executive assistant to the head of the school district. It was nothing but a glorified secretary, but it paid the bills. Now Nancy, my daughter is a lawyer, and married to a lawyer. Todd, my son got a full scholarship to MIT and already has IT firms offering him jobs. I got screwed by my dear asshole hubby and by New Jersey."

"I can see why you're bitter." Castle said.

"Bitter. Damned right I'm bitter. If that asshole had told me he was going to commit suicide, I'd have helped him. I'd have gotten the damned chainsaw and started on his face. I'd have worked on his crotch and then…."

"Mom! That's not helping your blood pressure!" Came a voice from another room.

Mrs. Maitland took several deep breaths. "I'm okay, Nancy." She continued to take deep breaths.

"Can I ask you some questions about your husband without getting you all upset?" He asked.

She smiled at him. "Sure. Ask away."

They talked for over an hour, but Carolyn Maitland knew very little about her husband's crimes or the money.

It took Castle several days to track down Marty Sinclair. Luckily, the New Jersey investigation had been very thorough, showing each guilty party's full name, date of birth and Social Security number. By lunch time the next day, he was ready to meet Sinclair.

He walked into a small deli in Brooklyn and saw Sinclair sitting in the back, having lunch. Castle walked over and sat down. "Hi, I'm Richard Castle. I'm a writer. I'd like to talk to you about…"

"Get the hell away from me." Sinclair snarled.

"Look, I just want to talk about…"

"The damned case that ruined my life? I got fired for doing what every rookie cop does. It was drilled into us at the Academy. Do what the veteran cops tell you to do. They know what they're doing. So, I signed some things I shouldn't have. I got fired and because the cops talk to each other, I couldn't get another job as a cop. My wife left me, I lost my house. I lost everything. Now I'm a handy man with a twelve year-old truck that's falling apart. I live in a one room apartment and eat lunch at cheap delis that serve skimpy sandwiches on day old bread. Now get away from me."

Sinclair didn't realize that he had told Castle quite a lot, but Castle wanted more. As Sinclair glared at him. Castle smiled. "How about I buy you lunch?"

"How about you get lost?"

Castle took a hundred-dollar bill from his jacket and dropped it on the table.

"What's that?"

Castle smiled. "You figure it out." When Sinclair kept glaring at him, he dropped another bill on the table. Sinclair looked interested, so Castle put one more on the table. "You know I could go to see they guys still in prison. Twenty bucks looks like a fortune to someone in prison."

Sinclair picked up the bills. "What do you want to know?"

They talked for over an hour, but Sinclair told him little about the case he didn't already know. He tried a different tack. "Tell me about Maitland himself. Was he a sharp dresser? A slob? Did he like muscle cars? Fishing? Did he drink? Cheat on his wife? Belong to a strange cult? Did he like to work around the house? Work in his garden? Tell me about the man himself."

Guided by Castle's questioning, Sinclair told him all he knew about the man.

"What about his tastes? Did he like rock music, country, jazz, classical, bagpipes?"

"He liked elevator music. He had it piped into the office. The most boring stuff you ever heard. Everyone hated it."

'Did he like TV, movies, plays? What?"

"He was an old movie buff. He liked the comedies: Laurel and Hardy, Abbot and Costello, the Marx Brothers, oh, and he loved that fat, drunk, nasty guy. He had a poster of the guy in his office, playing cards and wearing this silly top hat."

"W. C. Fields?"

"That's him."

Castle refrained from smiling.

They talked for a bit longer, but Sinclair knew nothing more. As Castle got up to leave, he tossed another hundred on the table, "I said I'd pay for your lunch, right?"

Castle took the information he'd gotten from Sinclair and added it to the other evidence he had. Then he got to work.

When Kate came back to the loft several days later, she found her husband standing in front of his office, with a big smile on his face.

"You have something to smile about?" She asked, teasingly.

"Being married to you I always have something to smile about. But, I have even more to smile about right now. Beckett, you're married to a genius."

"And so modest, too."

He smirked at her. "Laugh if you will, but I found the missing money?"

"It's here?" She looked around.

"No, but I know where it is. The State of New Jersey has it."

"Really? You think they just found the money and decided to keep it and not mention it to anyone?" She said somewhat sarcastically.

"No. They don't know that the money they have is Maitland's stash."

Kate sighed. "Why don't we have a glass of wine and you can try to make this make sense?"


	2. Chapter 2

Maitland's Millions

By

UCSBdad

Disclaimer: Would it surprise you to know I don't own Castle? Rating: K Time: After the end of season eight. Just a three shot.

Once he had poured the wine and sat on the sofa, Castle began to explain. "After a bank account has been dormant, that is no action of any sort by the owner, for a period of years, it's assumed by the state to be abandoned and reverts to the state. If the real owner shows up, he can get his money or property back, although…"

"Castle, my parents were lawyers and I was pre-law. I know what escheating is."

"Okay, so I found that money belonging to Maitland was in a Jersey City bank and escheated to the state years ago. I mean it's been almost twenty years since he killed himself."

"And his next of kin couldn't claim the money because it was illegally obtained." Kate added. "How did you find out all this?"

"I set up a computer program to match names used by W. C Fields with escheated bank accounts…"

"You set up a computer program?" Kate asked, raising an eyebrow. "Don't you mean Alexis did while you watched?"

"Alexis only helped for two minutes. Three tops." He said defensively.

"And what did she do?"

"She gave me the phone number of a guy she knows who's working on his PhD in computer science." Castle muttered, "But I could have done it. It's just since I have the money, why not…"

"So what did this program do? "

"It ran all of Fields' odd character names against bank accounts that had escheated to New Jersey. They post a list online so if you think you have some long-lost money there, you can find it."

"And?" Kate asked.

"Larson E. Whipsnade had an account. Get it? Larson E. Larceny."

"And?" Kate repeated as she rolled her eyes.

"So, I suggest we drive down to Trenton tomorrow and get the money."

"You do remember I work for the NYPD? You know? Someplace I have to be and things I have to do?"

"And they wouldn't want you to get millions back from some crook?"

Kate knew she couldn't win this one.

She advised One PP of where she was going and why as soon as she got to the precinct and then headed to Trenton with Rick. They met a rather fussy man named Roger Casemate who was in charge of the escheated funds. "I'm afraid you've come here for very little reason, Captain Beckett. "He said, ignoring Rick completely.

"And why is that?" Kate asked sweetly, noting Castle's anger.

"There certainly weren't millions of dollars in that bank. There was $1254.60 in the checking account and only $12,000 even in the safety deposit box. "He smiled at Rick. "And in spite of your husband's …Um, work, we have no actual proof this money ever belonged to Maitland. Therefore, we can't seize it."

Kate smiled back. "I'll ask the State of New Jersey to compare the handwriting on the bank documents from this Mr. Whipsnade with that of Maitland. That should validate my husband's work."

As she expected, Casemate looked disappointed.

"That's all there was in the safe deposit box?" Castle demanded. "There were no phony IDs, no guns? Nothing else?"

"Just the postcard." Casemate admitted.

"May I see the postcard?" Kate asked.

He searched through the documents on his desk and finally pulled out a clear plastic evidence bag with a postcard in it. He handed it to Kate.

Kate looked at it. "It's an old comic postcard. It's a drawing of an old-time outhouse on one side, with "Wish you were here." printed on it." She turned it over. "There's no message on it, but it's addressed to a PO Box in Passaic, New Jersey."

"Where it postmarked from?" Castle asked.

"Carroll, Pennsylvania. Never heard of it."

"We need to keep the postcard." Castle said.

Casemate glared at him. "If Captain Beckett, a police officer wants it, we'll be glad to loan it to her. When she fills out the appropriate paperwork."

Castle wanted the postcard so badly he actually helped Kate fill out the paperwork.

They took the postcard back to the precinct and tried to figure out what it meant.

"It has to mean something." Castle insisted. "Someone who's stealing millions and hiding it isn't going to put a random postcard with part of his loot."

"Unless it's a red herring. He wanted us to get all excited about some town in Pennsylvania and a PO Box in Passaic. Perhaps he wanted us to concentrate in those two places because they have nothing to do with anything."

"Don't say that!" Castle moaned. "Don't go around using your fiendish womanly police logic to ruin my theories."

Kate suppressed a smile. "Sorry. I won't let it happen again."

He looked at her and then smiled. "Yes, you will. You wouldn't be Captain Beckett, my wife and the love of my life, and the inspiration for Nikki Heat, if you didn't."

"Remember that I offered though." Kate tapped on her keyboard. "Carrol Township, Pennsylvania is in the far western part of the state, right by the West Virginia line. Real hillbilly country. Did Fields ever play a redneck? Seems unlikely. Or maybe the film had a hillbilly in it?"

A quick check of the internet showed them they were on the wrong track.

"One thing." Kate said, after doing more checking. "Carroll is a real small town. There's only one bank in it. A branch of William Penn Bank."

"That'll make tracking down Maitland's money easier."

"We still won't be able to get a Pennsylvania judge to approve a search warrant for everyone with an odd name that's used the bank. Did you check to see is any of Fields' characters names showed up in anything escheated to Pennsylvania?"

He shook his head. "The program is on my laptop at home. I'll check it tonight."

Esposito interrupted them. "I checked with the post office in Passaic. It took a little digging, but the PO Box was only used by Maitland for a month, then closed."

Kate went back to doing police work on her computer and Rick borrowed an unused computer. He found nothing useful, but went home early to run the names against his program.

He was just finishing up when Kate came through the door to the loft. "Find anything?"

He shook his head. "Nothing at all. And I'm wondering if maybe Maitland used other names. Groucho Marx used some odd names: Quincy Adams Wagstaff, Rufus T. Firefly, Otis B. Driftwood, J. Cheever Loophole, Wolf J. Flywheel and S. Quentin Quale, to name a few."

"The last one is probably a play on the slang term San Quentin Quail, referring to a girl under the age of legal consent for sex." Kate said.

"You're amazing Mrs. Castle. But, I'm glad I didn't meet you when you were a San Quentin Quail. I would never have been able to resist you."

"Perhaps I would have resisted you?" Kate teased.

They ordered out so that they could continue working. Finally, Kate was able to find a means to entice Castle into bed.

She woke up in the middle of the night, conscious that her husband wasn't in bed with her. She found him in his office on his laptop.

"I may have figured it out."

She walked over to look at his computer screen. "What is it?"

"The postcard. It's an outhouse. What are they made of, usually?"

"Wood?"

"And what's another term for an outhouse?"

Kate thought. "The convenience. The house out back. Privy. Jakes. John." She shrugged. "So?"

"How about a naval term?"

"A head?" She asked.

"So, a wooden head."

"And that gets us to…?"

"In the mid 1940s, Fields was often a guest on the Edgar Bergen radio program. Bergen was a ventriloquist and like all ventriloquists he had a dummy…"

"Wait a minute, a ventriloquist on radio? They're interesting because you can't see their mouths move when the dummy talks, but on radio…"

"Beckett! It was a successful show and that's not the point. Fields would trade insults with the dummy. Someone with a wooden head. The dummy's name was Charley McCarthy. That's the name we should look for in the bank in Carroll. I'll make reservation to have a plane take us to Wheeling, West Virginia and we can rent a car from there."

"Castle, I have to be at work…."

"We're looking for millions, Captain Beckett. Millions and millions."

Kate sighed. She knew she'd lose this one, too.

Castle chartered a business jet to take them to Wheeling and rented a Mercedes to go the rest of the way. As they approached the small town of Carroll, they began noticing things.

"This looks like just more West Virginia, not Pennsylvania. "Rick said.

"Every other vehicle on the road is a pickup with a gunrack in the back window."

"That is the third Confederate flag I've seen in the last mile."

"That bumper sticker said "Eat more possum"." Kate said, deciding she didn't want to know what possum tasted like.

"Better than "Lard. The other white meat." I saw." Castle replied.

"There's the sheriff's office. You can park in front."

Once inside the office, Kate introduced themselves to the officer at the front desk.

"The Sheriff, J. D. Spradlin, will be out to see y'all in just a sec."

The sheriff was right out of the Dukes of Hazzard, but she was a clone of Daisy Duke: Tall, blonde with skin tight tan pants and a tan shirt that she had left partly unbuttoned, showing off a spectacular cleavage and a lacy black bra. The sheriff's eyes lit up with a look Kate had seen many times when a woman met Rick. She decided she hated Sheriff J. D. Spradlin.

To Kate's surprise, the sheriff rushed over to her and began to shake her hand vigorously. "Oh, ma Gawd! It's true. Captain Kate Beckett is here in ma little town. Ah just _love_ each and every one of your books. Can y'all tell me when the next one will be out?'

"Um, my husband writes the books, you know." Pointing at Rick.

"Oh, according to what Ah heah, he just follows you around and takes little notes. The books are all about you."

"There's more to writing Nikki Heat than that." Castle said, insulted.

The sheriff ignored him. "Captain Beckett, can I please have you autograph your books? I keep a whole set here and one at home. I'll just be a sec." Sheriff Spradlin dashed back into her office and came back with some obviously well-read editions of the Nikki Heat books. She handed Kate a pen.

"You should have my husband autograph the books as well. He's the author, you know. Richard Castle?"

"Whatever." She didn't even glance at Rick.

Rick was mollified somewhat when his wife signed as Kate Beckett-Castle, but only signed his name, omitting the personalized messages he usually signed with.

"Sheriff Spradlin…." Kate began.

"Oh, please call me J.D. Everyone does."

"Then please call me Kate. We are here on business." Kate explained what had brought them to Carroll.

"I know it's probably a long shot, but do you think a judge would sign a search warrant allowing us to search the bank for a customer named Charley McCarthy?"

"Don't you worry none about that, Kate. We're a bit more neighborly than you folks are in New York. We'll just pop over and see Mike, the bank manager. DJ, honey, can you come here?"

DJ was a male version of JD, tall, well built, and blond.

"This is my hubby, DJ. This is the real-life Nikki Heat, Kate Beckett, come all the way from New York to investigate something in our little town. Ah'm taking them over to see Mike at the bank. Be back soon, lover." She kissed her husband and they were off.

All the way to the bank, the sheriff told Kate how much she loved the Nikki Heat books. Castle said nothing.

Once in the bank, JD told the manager what they were looking for. "Now, Mike, sweetie, can you just tell us all about any Charley McCarthys your little ole bank is dealing with?"

Mike looked conflicted. "Sheriff, you know that's against the rules. My clients have a right to expect that their privacy won't…."

"Mike, if this fella is banking here, then any money he had should have escheated to the state just years and years ago. Now if I was suspecting you of keeping that money in your bank here to get just a wee bit more interest and make yourself look good, why I could…"

Mike sat at his computer and began typing. "We do have a Charley McCarthy. Nothings happened to the account since the mid nineties when it was opened. There's fifteen thousand in a savings account and a safety deposit box."

"We need to see the safety deposit box." Rick and Kate said in unison.

Mike got the box and took it back to his office where they could open it in private.

"That box is too small to hold millions in cash." Kate said.

"He might have decided to buy diamonds or something. Much easier to move if you're on the run."

It wasn't diamonds.

"Another postcard?" Castle said, very disappointed.

Kate quickly put the card into a clear plastic evidence bag. "This one has a photo of a pool on it, and on the back…"She turned it over. "On the back there's no message, but it's addressed to a PO Box in Trenton, New Jersey. It's post marked from Hamilton Lake, New York. According to the caption, the photo is of the pool at the Sands in Las Vegas." She turned to the sheriff. "We'll need to take this with us."

"Why of course, Kate. Mike here don't mind. Do you, Mike."

Mike didn't say a word as Kate put the card in her purse.

They drove back to Wheeling and boarded their airplane. On the way back, Kate snuggled up next to Rick and napped. They took a cab to the precinct and briefed the boys on what they'd found. Kate gave them their orders and everyone got to work.

They met again at the precinct the next day. Espo spoke first.

"There's no record that Maitland ever went to Vegas, but this was before 9/11 when you didn't have to show a picture ID to board a plane. He could have flown to Vegas and back with no one the wiser.

Kate shook her head. "I can't see him hiding the money in Vegas. If everything went south, he'd want the money close so they could grab it and run."

"Or he could grab it and run." Castle added. "Ryan, what do you have?"

"Hamilton Lake is a small town in the Hudson River Valley, maybe twenty miles west of the river itself. Nothing I can see that connects it to Las Vegas, a swimming pool or W.C. Fields. But, it has five banks. Seven if you count two that are just outside the city limits."

"We'll never get a warrant for seven banks." Kate said.

"Did you two get anything?" Esposito asked.

"We went over the postcards looking for secret writing with invisible ink. Castle got out his infrared and black light scanners and we even tried…"

"Whoa! You have black light and infrared scanners, bro?"

"Doesn't everyone?" Castle replied mildly.

"Anyway, we went over the postcards with a fine-tooth comb and found nothing. I'm sure there are no secret or hidden messages on or in the card. I'm pretty sure that the card is a message that tells us to go to Hamilton Lake, New York and look for someone named Poole or some kind of pool. Anyway, Castle and I'll go up there tomorrow morning. It's an easy drive from the city and most of the morning commute traffic will be headed to the city, not out of it."

When they got to Hamilton Lake the next morning, they went straight to the local police headquarters to introduce themselves. Castle was shocked when he saw the name of the Chief of Police.

"You're Chief Josh Davidson?" He asked.


	3. Chapter 3

Maitland's Millions

By

UCSBdad

Disclaimer: Would it surprise you to know I don't own Castle? Rating: K Time: After the end of season eight. Just a three shot.

"That's me, young fellow." Davidson was a tall, spare man with snow white hair and an equally white beard. His face looked more weather beaten than tanned. Castle guessed he didn't spend much time behind a desk. "I know you're the author, Richard Castle, and this has got to be your wife, Captain Kate Beckett. Glad to meet you both." He held out his hand and they both shook it.

"Um, chief, do you have a relative who's a doctor by any chance?"

"Can't say that I do, Mr. Castle. Does it have to do with your case?"

Castle shook his head. "No, I know someone by that name and I was curious."

"We'd better explain why we're here." Kate said and briefed the chief on the Maitland case.

When she was done, the chief smiled. "I think I know what you're looking for."

"What and not who?" Said Kate.

"In 1986 the county decided to build a municipal swimming pool and it was a beauty. We got a full-sized Olympic pool, with dressing rooms and showers, a kids' playground, picnic tables with barbecue pits. The whole nine yards. It was something."

Kate frowned. "What happened?"

"After about three years the pool began to subside. It subsided until the floor of the pool cracked and all the water ran out. We got engineers to look at it and they told us the whole thing was substandard. The materials were third rate and the workmanship was sloppy. They condemned the whole place. The contractor who built the damned thing had long since left for greener pastures, but we found out that one of the building inspectors was on the take and two County Commissioners had had their hand in the cookie jar as well. They went to jail, but we were stuck with a useless pool. It would have cost us more to tear it down and build a new one that was up to building code than the county could afford, especially after all the money we'd spent on our useless pool."

"What happened to it?"

"It's still there, surrounded by a chain link fence with barbed wire on top. Kids get in, every once in a while, to party. We chase them off when we catch them. Otherwise it just sits there. Anyone could get in and hide something."

"Can we go see it?"

"Let me get my hat." Said the chief.

The pool was as described. It was surrounded by a chain link fence topped with barbed wire. The run-down buildings were covered with graffiti as were the picnic tables and playground equipment. Some of the kids' rides were damaged, probably by drunken young people playing on them.

"Look at that." Chief Davidson said, pointing to a stack of empty beer cans by the men's dressing room. "More damned kids have been out here partying. The beer doesn't bother me that much but we've found hypodermic needles out here. I don't want all the shit that goes on in the city to come out here." He stopped for a second. "Captain, I didn't mean to sound like I was blaming you, or the NYPD. I know you do the best that you can."

"No offense taken, Chief. Do you have any ideas where to look?"

"None at all. I know he wouldn't do anything stupid like chop a hole in the concrete in one of the changing rooms and fill it back up with new concrete. Too easy to spot. I guess we just start looking."

They were headed for the men's dressing room when several trucks pulled up and honked at them.

"On the way over, I called Jimmy Gordon at Parks and Recreation. I didn't expect him to get here so soon or bring all of his people with him."

The gate was opened and the trucks pulled in. Gordon was a large man with greying hair and a beer belly. He shook everyone's hand.

"Jimmy, I sure didn't expect you to be here so soon. And where did you get all those people?"

"You're kidding me, Josh. A real live treasure hunt for millions of dollars? You'd need your whole damned police force to keep me away. And our shift was just getting over when you called. Most of the guys are now off work and are volunteering. I had to leave most of the folks behind, but I'll bet they'll be here when their shift ends. Oh, the police dispatcher heard your call to me. You might be getting some other help." As they spoke, the other county workers were gathering around them. "Okay, boys and girls, Chief Davidson is in charge here. We work for him. Got it?"

There was a muttering of agreement.

"Chief, the County has a ground penetrating radar we use for non-destructive testing of concrete, roads, all sorts of stuff. It won't he here until later today, but we might try looking inside the structures. Any idea what we're looking for?"

The Chief turned to Kate. "What can you tell us, Captain Beckett?"

"I'm afraid we have no idea. If the loot was in cash, it'd have to be in a fairly big container. But, he might have decided to convert the cash into something more portable, like diamonds. I'm sure he would have put it in a very secure container. I'm guessing something with pretty thick metal."

The chief nodded. "Okay, people, get to work."

Gordon had been right. All afternoon people had shown up to work: off duty cops and firemen, the entire local volunteer fire department, two school teachers and a dozen janitors from the schools and just plain civilians. They were tearing the place apart. More people came and stood outside the fence, just watching.

Finally, Chief Davidson blew his whistle and gathered everyone around him. "It's getting dark and we don't have any lighting. I'm sending you all home." There were a lot of complaints about that, which Davidson ignored. "Now don't any of you have any problems tonight because I'm leaving the whole night shift out here except Dave and Ben to keep any would be fortune hunters out of here. Now scram."

The Chief directed Rick and Kate to a local Bed and Breakfast near the police station. They ate dinner at a local inn and then headed to their B&B.

"We'll find it tomorrow, my dear Captain Beckett. My Spidey sense is tingling. Millions and millions of dollars. I wonder if it'll be in diamonds. I'd turn my loot into diamonds. Or maybe rubies. Emeralds? Anyway, something easy to grab and go when the cops were hot on my trail. Or my partners, who I double crossed."

Kate raised an eyebrow. "Do you give a lot of thought to how you'll handle your ill-gotten gains? And how you'll double cross your _partner_?"

Her emphasis on the word partner brought Rick back down to Earth. "Of course not. Just as research. Rook and Nikki could be chasing some bad guy on the lam, some place bad. The New Mexican desert, maybe. They find the guy, but he's dead. Died of thirst or maybe bled out from a bullet wound he got from his ex-partners. Now they have a fortune in diamonds. Then the ex-partners start chasing Rook and Nikki across the desert. I'll call it _Desert Heat."_

Kate smiled. "Nice save, Castle. Just remember, it's Nikki and Rook. She's the cop, remember?"

"Duly noted, Captain Heat."

Kate just laughed and pulled him onto the bed.

They arrived at the old swimming pool just after dawn to find the work already underway and hordes of people standing outside, watching the events avidly.

Chief Davidson came over to talk the them. "The ground penetrating radar is here and hard at work. We've pretty much torn the dressing rooms up and found nothing. I'm guessing that if he hid anything here, it's in the ground. Dig a hole, toss your loot in and cover it up. A couple weeks, less if there's rain, and no one can tell the difference. Hell, the only people that are ever out here are kids partying. They're too busy downing beers to notice a damned thing."

"Has the GPR found anything?" Kate asked.

The Chief laughed. "First thing after it got set up, it found something and everyone came running. It was an old cast iron frying pan someone left behind."

Rick and Kate watched as the GPR went back and forth over the ground and the volunteers picked over pieces of this and that. The pieces were too small to hold anything worth millions, but no one wanted to give up. Someone started handing out shovels and they started digging where the GPR had already gone in hopes human sweat could find what high tech hadn't.

But by noon it was all over. Chief Davidson came over to talk to them again. "Captain, Mr. Castle, that's it. We've torn the place apart and gone over every inch with the GPR. There's nothing here, I'm afraid."

The Chief went off to get all of the people back to their normal routines.

"Do you want to go have lunch?"

Kate shook her head. "All of the dirt in the air from that shoveling has given me a headache. I'm going to go lie down and take an aspirin. You go ahead."

"I'll drop you off and I'll bring back a sandwich for you for later. Do you want to spend the night here?"

She shook her head again. "I want to go home, Rick."

He gave her a kiss. "Wherever you are is home to me."

The woman at the B&B recommended Red's as the best place in town for lunch. Castle found it to be clean and well decorated. He sat in a booth and called the waitress over.

"What can I get for you, sir?" She was young, Rick thought. High school or maybe college age. She was a pretty blonde, and her smile looked real and not a phony one for customers.

"How's the double chili, double cheese, double burger with double bacon?"

The girl laughed. "My boyfriend eats two of them when he comes in here. I can't even finish one, but I order it because it's very good."

"I won't try to match your boyfriend, but I'll have one. With coffee now and a chocolate shake with the meal."

"Be right back with your coffee." She said and hurried off.

When she came back, she stood there looking at him for a second. "Are you Richard Castle, the author."

He nodded and smiled. "And are you a fan?"

"Very much so, Mr. Castle. Can I ask you something?"

"Sure."

"Is your wife as beautiful as she looks in the papers and on TV?"

"She's more beautiful."

"Oh, "Then she giggled. "My name is Nikki." She pointed to her name tag. "This is my hometown, but I go to SUNY Plattsburg. I'm majoring in creative writing." She giggled again. "Don't worry. I'm not going to try to get you to read some thousand-page manuscript."

She was interrupted by the cook with Castle's order. And then by two large parties coming in.

He was almost done when she came back. "How was it?"

Castle smiled at her. "One more reason to come to Hamilton Lake."

"Why did you come here, if you don't mind my asking?"

Castle explained about the Maitland millions.

Nikki frowned. "I wonder if the clue could have been about the old Poole place?"

Castle was immediately interested. "What Poole place?"

"Ezekiel Poole was a big shot in the American Revolution. He was a member of the First Continental Congress in 1775, but was given command of a New York regiment and never made the second Congress. He missed out on the whole Fourth of July, Declaration of Independence thing." Nikki giggled again. "My dad is a huge history buff. Especially local history. After the Revolution he came back here and became a power in local politics. He also built a big estate for himself, not just a mansion, but stables, barns, a windmill, the whole works."

"What happened to it?"

"It became a State Historical Site in the early 1950s. Park rangers, guided tours, a place to eat overpriced food, a cute little souvenir store. But it caught fire in about 1968 or '69. By the time the fire department got there everything was in flames. The best the fire department could do was to keep it from becoming a forest fire."

"Why didn't they rebuild it or something." Castle asked, puzzled.

Nikki waved vaguely around herself. "The whole area outside of town is State Forest. Every time someone tried to do something, the tree-huggers would get all upset and say it was all a plot to cut down all the trees in the world and fight it like hell. After a while, no one bothered anymore."

"I wonder why Chief Davidson never mentioned that."

"Davidson isn't from around here. He spent twenty-six years in the Marine Corps before coming here. One way or another, I doubt that anyone remembers the Poole place. The road to it is shot, just one big pothole and the place is so overgrown that even when you're standing on it, it's hard to tell there was ever anything there."

"Can you tell me how to get there?"

"I can draw you a map." Which Nikki did.

Castle thanked her and dropped a hundred-dollar bill on the table as he left. "Keep the change."

He thought about waking Beckett, but thought better of it. They had been disappointed before and he didn't want to disappoint her now.

He went past the road twice before finally finding it. It was just as bad as Nikki had said it was, and several times he thought he'd either have to get out and walk, or be forced to get out and walk, because he'd damaged his suspension. But he finally made it. The place wasn't as badly overgrown as Nikki had said, so he got a shovel from the trunk of his car and started walking around. He smiled to himself when he saw a splash of white paint on an old foundation. He began to dig.

When he was two feet down, his shovel hit something solid. Something that sounded metallic. He soon found himself looking down at something apparently shrink wrapped in plastic over a thick canvas tarp.

"This is it. This has got to be it." He shouted and started digging around the sides so he could pull it out. Once out, he pulled out his pocket knife.

"That's far enough, Mr. Castle."

He looked up to see Marty Sinclair covering him with a gun.

"Marty, we don't have to argue over this. I'm a millionaire. You can have the finder's fee."

Sinclair grinned. "A finder's fee? Screw that. New Jersey ruined my life. They took everything from me and now I'm just taking what's mine." He aimed at Castle's chest. "The money is mine."

"It's mine!" Said another voice.

Castle recognized her as soon as she stepped out of the trees. She also had a gun, but hers was pointed at Sinclair. Sinclair moved to cover her with his gun.

"Mrs. Maitland? How did you find me?"

"A tracking device on your car. Just like your buddy over there." She turned towards Sinclair. "I lost everything, too because of my bastard husband. I'll give you a hundred thousand dollars to shut you up."

"A hundred grand? Forget it. Your husband was a crook. I deserve that money, not you."

Castle felt like Tuco at the end of _the Good, the Bad and the Ugly_. Except he didn't even have an unloaded pistol.

They both fired at once. Sinclair looked down at his chest and then fell face forward.

Mrs. Maitland turned to Castle. "My husband taught me how to shoot." Then she too fell face forward.

He checked them and found them to both be dead. He pulled out his cell phone and called 911. He decided he'd better leave the loot as it was until the police arrived.

When they did arrive, the first person out of Chief Davidson's Jeep was Kate. She ran to him and threw her arms around him, then kissed him. "What did I tell you about doing something dangerous without me?" She whispered.

"I didn't think it was dangerous."

"From now on then, don't do anything at all without me."

Chief Davidson interrupted. "Mr. Castle, you need to tell me what happened here."

Castle explained and Davidson and his officers examined the crime scene.

"Looks like your story checks out, Mr. Castle. Should we see what's in the box?"

Davidson cut away the plastic and the tarp. Underneath them was a sturdy strong box, secured with two padlocks. A pair of bolt cutters from the Jeep cut them away.

"Would you like to do the honors and open it up, Captain Beckett?

"My husband should do that, Chief."

Castle opened the strong box and looked inside. "Oh, dear." He said.

What with all the paperwork and statements involved in two deaths and Maitland's stash, Rick and Kate had to stay the night in Hamilton Lake. He did take Kate to Reds and introduced her to Nikki, whose last name was Jennings, and not Heat, as he had hoped.

"As Nikki here was as responsible as anyone for finding Maitland's long vanished loot, I've decided to give her the first Richard Castle Scholarship for Crime Fighting Literature Students. Nikki, this means the rest of your college tuition, room and board and books and supplies will be paid by the scholarship. And it'll pay off any student loans you now have."

Nikki hugged and kissed Rick and then apologized to Kate. Kate told her that one kiss was allowed for winners of the scholarship. Then she ran to the kitchen to tell the cook to make the best meal he'd ever made for the Castles.

They arrived back at the 12th Precinct the afternoon of the next day.

"Is that it, bro?" Espo asked.

"Can we see it?" Asked Ryan as everyone in the bullpen gathered around.

"What's a million in cash look like?" Espo asked.

"I have no idea." Castle said as he opened the strong box, exposing the contents.

"What are those?" Ryan asked.

"Stock certificates." Kate answered. "Maitland was smart. A million dollars in hundreds weighs about twenty-two pounds. Easy enough to fit into a small suitcase. But as the millions pile up, the weight and volume get bigger. Harder to move around, especially if you're on the run. The stocks here total some seven and a half million at face value."

"So it's still good, right?"

"It's worthless." Castle said. "We just came from my stock broker's. Maitland bought stock in the Enron Corporation. It was an energy company based in Texas and from the early to late nineties it was the hottest, most valuable stock on the planet. In early 2000 it all started to fall apart. Enron was just one giant scam based on very well-cooked books. Its creditors forced it into bankruptcy, the Feds got involved and just about every Enron executive went to jail, in fact their accounting firm went belly up as well. Quite a financial fiasco. And, according to my stockbroker, the stock is now worthless."

"But New Jersey wants the stock anyway." Kate added.

"Why?" Ryan asked. "It's worthless."

"Some lowly millionaire author couldn't get a dime out of anyone, "Castle said, teasingly, "but New Jersey hopes that if they sue everyone that had anything to do with Enron, and make sure everyone knows that they will keep at it for years if they have to, that someone will offer a settlement to just get them to go away. It happens all the time."

"One thing." Ryan asked. "Why did Maitland leave all of those complicated puzzles behind to find the loot? Makes no sense."

Kate shrugged. "Maybe he was planning to double cross his partners all along. He'd give them the "treasure map" for their share and then go directly to the loot and grab it and run. Maybe he was just sadistic and wanted to cause as much trouble as he could if he couldn't get his stash. We'll never know because he's dead."

"I did get some great ideas for Nikki and Rook, though, including a minor, but important character, also named Nikki."

"Another Nikki, bro. Who?"

"Sorry. No spoilers. You'll have to buy the book."

Tory Ellis stuck her head out of Beckett's office. "Captain Beckett? There's a phone call for you from One PP."

Kate shook her head. "They probably want to bitch about the time I took on this case."

"Just tell them that you recovered Maitland's millions all by yourself. Without any help from your ruggedly handsome husband." Castle offered.

Kate just laughed as she headed for her office.

The End

 **Author's note: Yes, I'm still working on the next installment of the adventures of Lord and Lady Castle in Renaissance Italy. Our Casketty couple have gotten to the fabulous city of Constantinople. Naturally things go horribly wrong.**

 **FYI: Carroll Township, PA is a real place. Former SF 49ers quarterback Joe Montana went to high school there. Enron Corp was also real and was a giant scam. Hamilton Lake and Ezekiel Poole, however, are fictional.**


End file.
